The new wine and food explorers' guide

June 2008

Opening this month, VisitVineyards.com is Australia’s first comprehensive guide for wine and food explorers providing up-to-date information, news and reviews of the best regional wine and food travel experiences across the country.

The site has been carefully developed to cater to the needs of today’s food and wine traveller and is based on a deep understanding of customers’ needs and the challenges often presented by planning a getaway in this highly fragmented market.

Australian wine and food country offers many wonderful and diverse experiences, but travellers can easily spend hours trying to find the right information. How many times have you said “I wish I‘d known that before I went”? VisitVineyards.com brings together more than 30,000 wine, food and travel experiences across every Australian wine and food region. It helps people discover what’s going on, the places and products not to be missed and up-to-date information about their next wine or culinary destination.

Visitors to VisitVineyards.com can search the site free of charge and will soon be able to craft an itinerary to suit their specific interests – whether it be visiting a winery for a degustation lunch; staying overnight at a secluded retreat; sampling homemade chocolates from a local chocolatier; playing golf at a local club; or a combination of them all!

Five major factors set VisitVineyards.com apart from other wine, food and travel websites:

it is an active online publisher - not just a directory or list

it does not sell food or wine products and is not associated with any producer, wholesaler or retailer

it does not charge its customers to access information or to build an itinerary

it does not request a participation fee from its listed partners, providing them with a complimentary way to market their products and services to an interested and active audience, thus enabling the inclusion of very small, boutique producers

it was established by people with a background in food, wine and travel, who are passionate about directly connecting producers with a knowledge-seeking public

Robyn Lewis, the brainchild, founder and CEO of VisitVineyards.com hatched the site’s concept several years ago amid frustration at having to sift through mountains of brochures and websites to seek credible wine, food and travel information and advice.

"Having travelled extensively internationally and within Australia, I was well aware of our fantastic regional food and wine experiences and was keen to explore more, but found I was wasting far too much time searching and planning when I could have been on the road exploring. VisitVineyards.com will connect epicurious travellers to the many fantastic wine and food producers in Australia, saving them time and ensuring they get the most out of their travels,” said Robyn.

With 15 years experience in the wine, food and travel industries, Robyn has a sound knowledge of what constitutes a great travel experience. She works tirelessly alongside her team of industry experts to seek out the smallest artisan cheese maker, the best country guest house and the finest local winemakers and to include them in the ever-expanding VisitVineyards.com community.

Anyone who visits VisitVineyards.com can subscribe to the monthly e-newsletter free-of-charge which includes offers at featured wineries, restaurants, accommodations and other travel experiences. Subscribers have the added benefits of accessing opinions and advice from like-minded people and posting their own comments.

With VisitVineyards.com, discovering the best of wine and food country has never been easier.

Visiting vineyards? You think you'll remember all those wines, but guess what? You probably won't. So we've created a wine tasting template to fill in easily, to keep track of all your favourite (and not so favourite) wines.

Tassie has iconic images aplenty - think Wineglass Bay, the hot orange rocks at Bay of Fires and the curve of Cradle Mountain. There's another that is synonymous with Hobart. It's the Georgian sandstone buildings lining a street filled with the colour of umbrellas and people. It's Salamanca Market on Hobart's waterfront. This stunning book takes you on a wander through the market and a journey through its rich history - Salamanca Market started in 1972 and is now the state's most visited tourist attraction. Every Saturday Tasmanian producers and designers create the a huge selection of locally made products to be explored. we have three copies to be won! »